EDWARD VIII
Parliament would shortly be forced to take some cognizance of the affair. Finally the storm broke more or less by chance ; certain North of England newspapers attributed to a speech by the Bishop of Bradford a significance of which that prelate was himself unaware and the country found itself involved overnight in a first-^ class constitutional crisis. f*^
Some time previously the King had intimated to the Prime Minister, Mr. Baldwin, his intention to make this Mrs. Simpson his wife and it now became obvious that there were four courses open to him. He could marry the lady and make her queen, he could contract a morganatic marriage in which case she would not be queen, he could abdicate and marry her or he could abandon the whole project. To each of these courses save the last there were grave objections. That the intended queen was a commoner and an American would not, in these democratic times, have been regarded as an obstacle ; moreover, Edward IV and Henry VIII had both married commoners, but the fact that Mrs. Simpson had divorced two husbands both of whom were still living, although there did in fact exist a precedent for a divorcee queen (Eleanor of Aquitaine's first husband was still alive at the time of her marriage to Henry II), was one that the majority of the nation would not accept. On the other hand, there did not exist in English law any such thing as a morganatic marriage and therefore special legislation would have had to be introduced, which Parliament and the Dominion Governments would undoubtedly refuse to 196